Story 11July2022

Today I am running late, and tomorrow I have no time to write, so this will be a rushed blog. Sorry for the typos!

It is easier for me to rush going backward…so here is today, Tuesday’s story from now to the morning.

I am home looking at my Dell Inspiron 3000 laptop, a Windows system I bought last year on special (BTW, it is still the same price), but my power adapter is missing. I ordered a new one on Amazon, which will be here on Thursday. I remember Mariah’s Apple is failing, and Mariah is looking at Windows systems. She can try mine and see if the specifications are enough for her and then find a new one. She is looking at a tablet-style.

Before this, I drove back from Forest Grove, where I met Mariah for a light dinner, beer, and dessert. The Grand Lodge, a repurposed early 1900 Masonic Home, is one of my favorite restaurants. We sat outside and had salads and drinks. We chatted about writing and computers and work. It was in the 80s (26.7C) when we got there, but like the desert, the temperature crashed after sunset and was soon in the 60s (15.5C).

Mariah did not take her muscle car to the Grand Lodge but instead took her electric scooter. Mariah has an orange helmet to use with her scooter, which she said allows her to be seen better, and she told me with a wry smile that it also matches the color of her car. The rechargeable scooter goes as fast as 20MPH and has lights for the night. She lives a few miles from the Lodge, and with the lights, she was not concerned about traveling home. I took Air Volvo home without incident.

Before that, I played with my new iPad, a gift from the shoe company for all the hard work we did on the big project. The iPad has the project name and log painted on the back. I have not had one before, and I connected to my network and set it up. It is superb. 

I reached home from work after a party to celebrate the go-live of our new software. Nike’s COO, CDIO, and the project leadership were there and gave short speeches thanking us for all our hard, nearly impossible work to get a new major software system installed in the middle of a pandemic (I have been working on this project for about five years I think). I had munchie food at the party, a diet coke, and a sip of bubbly to celebrate. I did manage to get into the official photo (wearing my mask while crowded into a picture!).

Before that, I had a few items to follow up with and helped investigate an issue in the data conversion, but none of my ideas for causes have any evidence in the logs. So far, no smoke-gun for why specific data was converted wrong.

Lunch was a The Rock, Wood Fired Pizza which had a $10 pizza and salad special. I love their pizza, but I could only eat 2/3 of a personal pizza, and with today’s temperatures of 92F (33.3C), I ended up throwing out the leftovers (Air Volvo needs a frig). The Ceasar salad was great, and their iced tea was plain tea. Excellent.

I was at work for a short while after I left Hummingbird House and returned to the office via Air Volvo (without any incidents, but I braked for the police who were looking for folks to give tickets to on highway 26).

There I saw Susie was in her wheelchair when I got there. An RN was checking out Susie, and she had a shower. Susie felt a bit out of sorts with all the change to her usual slow schedule but soon relaxed as I wheeled her out into the Park; it was still in the high 70s (25.5C) then and thus comfortable.

We connected for a few minutes with Susan’s mother, Leta, who was having her hair done. I then called Susan’s aunt, Glenda, who helped me pick Hummingbird House for Susie earlier in the year. After that, we chatted on FaceTime while sitting in Metzger Park in the shade near a picnic table.

Soon, as usual, my time is up, and Susie is sorry I have to leave so soon. So I get her back to the house and, with a kiss, go in Air Volvo.

Before this, I was at work early for the first meeting at 8ish. I spent a few hours in meetings and looking at data.

I was rushed in the morning as I had to leave by 7:15 to be early for the meeting. I had a banana and yogurt for breakfast. I have a lot of yogurt (FYI: Grammarly strongly suggests that yogurt can have a plural–but I refused that) as I did not understand that the pictures on the Safeway were for 32 oz of yogurt and ordered three of them (lucky they only had two) instead of the small cups of single-serving yogurt I usually get. I think this is better in the long run, and I could use the containers, but one does need to be careful when ordering online!

I slept until 5ish when one of the Amazon devices went nuts and was doing an alarm. I told it to stop, and it did. So I went back to sleep after that. It was hard to get started this morning. “Alexa, WTF, stop” was not what I said, but I thought it.

Aside: The bourbon rose bush faded from the heat, and the bloom, my first, was wilted. I will keep watering it daily now that we are in the hot summer to keep it going. Maybe we can get more blooms.